Service Charges Probe

People living in leasehold properties could be being treated unfairly by freeholder landlords and managing agents who dictate the service charges they must pay for maintenance and insurance. Officials at the Office of Fair Trading will examine the market for property management services to establish whether it works against the UK's estimated 5million leaseholders. The OFT has asked for interested parties to provide their views on the sector. Its study will examine private leaseholdings as well as local authorities and housing associations. The study will not examine the process of renewing leaseholds when they get closer to expiring. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

ALMOs Doing Their Bit to Help Private Rental Sector Improve

The National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) has welcomed a select committee report calling for ‘cowboy’ lettings agents to be driven out of the private rental sector.  The CLG Select Committee has published its report into the private rental sector, calling for a host of measures to reform and modernise the sector. Welcoming the report, the NFA said ALMOs were doing their bit.

Working closely with local authorities, the ALMO sector is increasingly providing lettings and housing management services to the private rented sector in an effort to improve both the quality of accommodation and housing management within the private rented sector. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Council Tenants Set To Take Full Control of Housing Services

An inner-London tenant management organisation is set to become the first in the country to introduce total resident management, collect and retain its rents and pay the council for services.  Leathermarket Joint Management Board (JMB), Southwark's largest tenant management organisation, already looks after 1,500 homes and undertakes the full range of management services including the delivery of major works.  Under the proposals, Leathermarket JMB would collect and keep the rent and service charges from their stock and would have the power to simply pay the council for additional, central costs such as the repayment of outstanding debt on the stock they manage.  Read more on 24dash.